مَنْ الذي خرّبَ البصرة؟

Throughout history, wars have wreaked havoc in Basrah. Memories linger, generation after generation. Discrimination against coloured people arises. The Zanj Rebellion (869-883) was the “most vicious and brutal uprising” that plagued the Abbasid central government (Furlongr; 7:99). It was led by Ali ibn Mohammed, a white writer of Persian descent who befriended the Abbasid Khalifa Al-Muntasir (837-862) through his influential slaves. When Ali couldn’t lead the rebel in Samarra, central Iraq, and the capital at the time, he went to Basrah. Ali took Al-Mukhtara, near Basrah, as a capital for him and his followers. They were mainly black people to whom he promised money and wealth. Basrah was burnt, and people and animals were killed. The civil war lasted for 14 years. It destroyed the whole region socially and economically. The central government finally brought it to a close.

The poet, Sundus S. Bakr, comments in “Who destroyed Basrah?” Both white leaders were to blame. Superficially, people distinguished between whites and blacks. They forgot, however, that white outsiders destroyed them all. An example she gives is of 11 members of one family, killed in one go.

“When the wall buried eleven moonsIt was not caused by a nigger Heartless people bitterly occupied the city”

The title is derived from a saying of the Zanj Rebellion: “Regrets won’t change the destruction (of Basrah)”. It simply means:Too little too late.

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